Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-04-26

10 demand not prUnlOltlOn but an eIe-
waiting, so to speak, or at least con-
strainiDg of the saloons so that the dive
keeper, the dancehOuse master, the host
esS of thieves and persons of no financial
responsibility shall be barred out of the
privilege Of Beeping open house and SELL
ing liquor. Strong forts were made as
Albany to unite the Democratic party
against this high license bill, but without
success. The Republicans, on
the other hand, were with
the greatest difficulty made
practical unit on the subject, though
several of them desired to run sway and
be abSentees, and others are charged
with having intended to put it hard to the
saloon keepers and then turn about after
the Governor had vetoed the bill. There
is general attack being made on Hill,
in advance, upon the superstition that he
will veto the bill. When Governor Sey-
mour disappointed the temperance men
in 1854 the subject was not one OF high
license, but of
ACTUAL PROHIBITION.
The high license bill which has been set
before Governor Hill is q compromise be-
tween drinking and making inh-keepers
responsible. The bill which SEYMOUR
vetoed struck at all the manufacturing
interests which created stimulants. The
bull which Hill is surveying permits dis
tilliDg and brewing, but regulates the
saloons. The cities have undertaken to
regulate the saloons, but have never done
50 with any efficiency. Hence Seymour We
tOed DILL of abstract morals, while Hill
may veto q bill of licensing. There are
plenty of persons VINO believe in the use
OF table wines and beers and quiet in
diligence, who trace the decay of habits
in youth and manhood to the berdiDg of
men in bar-rOoms. Few persons are
aware of the universally IF intOxiCatiOp.
1t is not the disease of idlers, politicians,
triders, irresponsible IabOrers and
mechanics, etc; it extends into the COM
merCial classes, and has its Victims in
almost every mercantile house. From
time to time there are
REVOLUTIONS OR COMMISSIONS
On the business circle against the tempta-
tiOns which beset them. These self-ac-
cusations have finally led to the demand
for fewer saloons in New York aud more
character in what are left. Governor
Hill has already prepared his defense by
saying that the Legislature had no busI-
ness to pass special acts; that a bill for
the city of New York to regulate its sa-
looms is in the light of local legislation.
But there is only one city like New
York and no city on the globe which has
so many saloons. Governor Seymour
vetoed the prOhibitOry bill on the general
affirmation that undue severity of laws
defeated their execution; that prohibition
involved the searching of the premises
and dwellings of citizens, and that tenn
perance was the product OF education,
morality and religion. ~ look upon ia
said Seymour, ''as 4 fruit
full source of degradation and misery. but
men can not be compelled to adopt habits
of temperance"
Mr.. Hill, being q supposed presidential
can tidate, VIII veto it probably, like Sey-
mOur, not upon the issue of intemperance
nor of morals, but upon the usurpation
of legislatures, etc. The effect will be,
it seems to me, to turn the Republican
party of New York into a high license or
anu therefore impose upon
the next convention OF the Republican
party a high license platform. One
would suppose that if the two parties dt-
vided on this issue there would also be
q division across the sectional line, AID
that temperance might
SUPPLANT REPUBLCANIsM
IN this Country. The American
people have two overwhelming
anxieties at the present time.
The first is the ancient one of getting
rich, and the next is the incidr ntal one of
those licenses which DESTROY
riches and may be said to dssipate the
commonwealth. This word common
wealth perhaps means the aggregate net
revenue of the people in state.
,Nv7+
wealth has been without any discipline.
Every man has raced as hard as he could
to get it. Slowly a large percentage of
our people have been coming to the IN
ders .andIng that unless wealth is &C
quired by restraint and care it will not
stick, and that even the huge results shown
by our census of national wealth stand
upon g sandy foundation If there are
no bulWaTks to general habits and morals.
The railroads, which for years have been
endeayoring to make money without
much regard to their own regulations or
habits, are at last tIghtened up and see
the gulf of ruin they were hanging over
Oy want OF diCipline. The pending two
years probably mean getting ready for
; huge contest over restraint or no re-
5traint in politics.
l have been stating this high license
question in New York state dispassion-
ately, looking upon it merely as one Of
the great issues hurrying to the front. 1t
is to be noticed also that many of the
forces which have hitherto cO-operated
with the license interest are now more or
less detached. For instance, the labor
issue has no necessary connection with
the saloons. Nor has the Irish
question, led by clergymen of diff
erent denominations, any con-
nection with temperance or intem-
Derance. In the city of Washington,
where Cleveland administers, the screws
nave been put TO the saloons as nowhere
else in this land, showing that the Presi-
lent, and inc deutally some of the Ger
nan elements which support him, are not
10 be cOerced in the matter of sumptuary
avs. Inevitably national political change,
pas upon the idee of strict administra-
ion, was bound to proceed beyond the
itself to the forces which